STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

The years 1947-53
can be considered
rebuilding years for Alfred Hitchcock, in that his main concern was in
expanding upon his own artistic vocabulary. Most of his films
from this era are fascinatingly experimental, if dramatically
unsatisfying, but they constituted a necessary period of growth prior
to his greatest years of 1954-64.

The one undisputed masterpiece from
this time was STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, which was the most typically
Hitchcock of them all. In it, a man-child of a psychopath named
Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) corners tennis pro Guy Haines (Farley
Granger) while on a train ride and entertains him with his theories on
committing the perfect murder. If two strangers with no known
link between them were to "exchange" murders -- in this case, you kill
my father and I'll kill your wife -- it would enable each of them to
formulate a perfect alibi. Guy humors Bruno throughout the ride,
dismissing him as a harmless loon. Then Bruno decides to fulfill
his end of the bargain as a nice surprise for Guy.

STRANGERS ON A
TRAIN is an archetypical Hitchcock film, filled with some of the
director's most celebrated images: the opening "ballet" of feet, the
murder reflected in a pair of eyeglasses, and the heart-stopping climax
on an out-of-control merry-go-round. - JL

Throw Momma From the Train (1987) - not a remake or a ripoff, but a
comic homage to the Hitchcock film which actually uses the original
Hitchcock film as a plot point. Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito
star.